All About Eve
Eve is a character which represents personal ambition and manipulation. The character is a person who is willing to do anything necessary to get what she wants and has, apparently, no remorse or feelings of guilt for her actions. Watching this movie I saw that All About Eve was also all about me.
In watching this movie I personally saw Eve of a sort of mirror to my own manipulative tendencies. As I watched how carefully the character chose her words, and moved in a certain way in order to obtain precisely the reaction desired for those around her. I thought of how often I have done the same things myself. I thought of how often I have carefully selected what I told others about me in order to create a certain desired image of myself. It made me conscience of the fact that I have, on countless occasions manipulated people for my own benefit. It drew my thoughts back in a tour of my past and brought forth a multi-tude of times in which I behaved much as the character Eve did.
I remember acting in such a way even when I was as young as six. Until I watched this movie I had never consciously realized that I do these things to get what I want. But now, after observing such a wonderfully carried out portal of someone else discreetly controlling others, I realize that I do this quite naturally as a part of my everyday life.
As I see it the character of Eve represents myself and the dangers of what I could become if I should permit myself to continue these practices. I believe that the character of Eve is intended to show viewers of the audience, who re-semble her, a mirror of themselves, so they can see how they look from the out-side. It is advantageous to do this through the medium of a film because it al-lows the viewer to see the point from a more objective view then may be pro-vided through other means.
I think that this movie is one which will have a ex-tremely powerful effect on such people. It made me realize that this way of con-trolling others is not a natural part of life in general though it has become a natural part of my life.
Eve represents, to me, what I could become. The realization that the same characteristics which make Eve such a fascinating character are present in myself has shown me that I have a decision to make. Eve represents one of the choices, the choice to consciously continue to foster these seeds of manipula-tion. If I chose to take the road that Eve did I could not only continue to ma-nipulate people subconsciously but could use manipulation concisely, as a tool in my life, as I use my intellect and sense of humor. I could look at a situation and decide how I want it to be then create my desired reality through controlling how others think of me and act towards me.
This path would enable me to do many things which could not be accomplished easily, or at all without it. It would also, however mean that I would have to compromise the elements of my conscience that prevent me from hurting others freely. The other choice that lies in front of me is the option to force myself to stop this habit of manipulating others which is so deeply rooted in my life. To do this I must make myself aware of all of the ways that I manipulate others. I must examine my everyday interactions and force myself to discontinue the practices which are deceitful. Having made the decision to live this way I would have to learn to change things around me my other, more straightforward ways. This path is the opposite of what Eve.
This character, Eve, has brought forth a great deal of thought and self-examination in my mind. I think that this films creators made a dangerous choice in the way that they ended their movie. I think that it is dangerous be-cause they do not leave Eve in a sad, poor or apologetic state. At the end of the movie Eve has a nice apartment, a flourishing career and has succeeded in her plot to raise to the top of the entertainment world.
This leaves a viewer, like my-self, to decide for themselves what to do, whether to follow the path of Eve or to turn away from it. The ending leaves the “bad guy” in a fairly happy position, thus blurring how the viewer should feel about her. Leaving this as they did, the message of the movie could be taken as either, You will lose all of your friends and be a bad person if you are manipulative, as Eve is, or You will get whatever you want, if you are manipulative, as Eve is.